MEDIA REACTION: CLIMATE CHANGE, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BERLIN 001571 STATE FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/PAPD, EUR/PPA, EUR/CE, INR/EUC, INR/P, SECDEF FOR USDP/ISA/DSAA, DIA FOR DC-4A VIENNA FOR CSBM, CSCE, PAA "PERISHABLE INFORMATION -- DO NOT SERVICE" SIPDIS E.0. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR AF NO KGHG IZ GR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CLIMATE CHANGE, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, GREECE;BERLIN ¶1. Lead Stories Summary ¶2. Climate Change ¶3. Nobel Peace Prize ¶4. Afghanistan ¶5. Iraq Terror Attacks ¶6. Greek Financial Crisis ¶1. Lead Stories ZDF-TVQs primetime newscast Heute opened with a story on German carmaker VWQs new stake in Japanese carmaker Suzuki. ARDTVQs primetime Tagesschau opened with a report saying that statutory health insurance programs would face a deficit of four billion euros next year. Newspapers led with diverse stories, including the dispute over climate protection measures in Copenhagen, the British governmentQs move against bonuses, and Defense Minister zu GuttenbergQs problems. Stern magazineQs cover showed President Obama under the headlined QA rescuer in need.Q Editorials focused on many topics, including VW and climate change. ¶2. Climate Change All German media highlighted the dispute between industrialized and developing nations at the climate conference in Copenhagen. Tagesspiegel led with the headline: QClimate: poor vs. rich, north vs. southQDispute over greenhouse gases and money in Copenhagen, criticism of the Danish negotiations.Q Frankfurter Rundschau fronted: QDispute in Copenhagen,Q adding: QDeveloping countries are outraged about the draft agreement of the industrial countries. Sueddeutsche Zeitung editorialized: QIt would be a great mistake to believe that individual abstention could replace collective abstention, which is a compelling condition for an effective fight against the worst consequences of global warming in the rich world. A society that only believes in voluntary efforts in this huge task is unfair and will ultimately fail. Forcing people to give up some things in our affluent society does not automatically pave the way into a miserable life. Once a certain level of prosperity is reached, happiness and satisfaction can no longer be increased, unlike the number of depressed people. Refraining from certain things will be easier if all carry the burden collectively and fairly. TagesspiegelQs front-page editorial remarked: QParticularly the U.S. must be blamed if there will not be a binding agreementQbut only promisesQon greenhouse gases in Copenhagen. Obama does not want to do more than the U.S. Congress allows him. Kyoto has made clear that an agreement the President approves is worth nothing as long as it is not implemented at home. Obama will therefore offer a CO2 reduction of 17 percent compared with 2005. This means a reduction of only four percent compared with 1990 However, he is fighting for more, telling Americans that their environmental consciousness is two decades behind the times. Die Welt analyzed: QEven Democrats from states with high unemployment see climate protection as a luxury one cannot afford. In Copenhagen, Barack Obama might embrace the world, but in the Congress only a few follow him to support his promises. Global warming and climate protection have become a matter of belief. Opponents claim that enough oil for generations lies off AmericaQs coast. They see themselves as godQs warriors and Copenhagen and its allies in the UN as those who want to weaken America to establish a socialist world government. For those Americans, ObamaQs post-imperial posture is more than a sell-out of AmericaQs interests: it is high treason and the Nobel Peace Prize the traitorQs reward In addition, Obama is chained by a Congress that is hardly capable of taking action The Senate is destructive and anachronistic. Everyone, apart from the 100 Senators, knows that. BERLIN 00001571 002 OF 003 Thueringer Allgemeine commented: QThe rift between the industrialized countries and the developing countries is also so wide because of hundreds of years of exploitation and oppression by Europe and America. Generous support of poor countries does not just have the purpose of guaranteeing its growth in an environment-friendly way. It would also be a kind of compensation. Against this background, the U.S. offer of ten billion dollars sounds in fact like a joke. The outcry of the 135 developing countries is therefore understandable. ¶3. Nobel Peace Prize Left-wing Tageszeitung editorialized: QDoes Barack Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize he will get in Oslo today? The simple answer is no, because the President is at war in Afghanistan and announced an escalation of the conflict last week by sending in 30,000 additional soldiers. Many who have celebrated him as the new messiah during his speeches in Berlin and other capitals are therefore disappointed. However, already during his elections campaign, Obama justified the war in Afghanistan and called for more soldiers from Germany and other countries. One cannot accuse Obama of having lied to his people and the world.Q The paper adds: QHis course in Afghanistan makes Obama a war president. However, he is the best that could have happened to the U.S. and the world. Berliner ZeitungQs editorial stated: QObama will not be honored for something he has done, but something the world hopes he will do. The President can hardly meet the expectations the Nobel Prize committee is raising. What a burden for a man who rules a superpower! At the end of his first year, Obama is back to earth. The President has three more years to go. To achieve something he will need not just more fortune than in the past, but also cleverness, determination and persistence. His masterpiece could be the reconciliation of cultures. If he succeeds, he would have earned the Nobel Prize. ¶4. Afghanistan Under the headline QEuropeans without influence,Q Sueddeutsche editorializes: QWithin NATO, it is often said that the influence of a member on the strategy in Afghanistan increases with every additional soldier the country sends into the war. This is self-deception. Every nation that now increases troop levels as part of the U.S. effort cherishes this illusion. They will not get a greater say, because the decisions have been made a long time agoQin Washington and without consulting the allies. This will also be the case in the future. In his own brutal way, AfPak envoy Holbrooke made this clear with his recent statements. He only laughed about the London conference on Afghanistan in January. European allies now know what it is about. Some of the allies, particularly the Germans, hope that London would reach an international consensus on the approach towards Afghanistan, and with it, a justification for deploying additional soldiers and providing more civilian aid. Nobody will do them this favor. Instead of waiting for the London conference, Berlin should quickly make its decision on whether it believes the U.S. strategy on Afghanistan is promising. One should then send more troops or withdraw. ¶5. Iraq Terror Attacks Frankfurter Allgemeine carried an editorial on its front page saying: QAs cynical as it may sound, the coordinated major attacks that killed more than hundred people every two months in Bagdad show that the process of normalization has made much progress. In 2006 BERLIN 00001571 003 OF 003 74 were killed every day; in 2007, 65. Politics hardly mattered at all, surviving mattered. Today, terrorism does not threaten the parliamentary elections on March 7, nor does it threaten the broad consensus among the people that there is no other option for their country besides democracy. However, Iraq is a maltreated country. Terrorism is part of everydayQs life. And despite the second largest oil resources in the world, Iraq remains a poorhouse. The infrastructure is run down, and shortcomings are everywhere. As a result, corruption is the quickest way for many for a better life, at the expense of the country. Most Iraqis are still a long way away from a life in prosperity and security. ¶6. Greek Financial Crisis SueddeutscheQs front-page headlined: QGreek national debt makes EU nervous,Q and added in an editorial: QThose who believe the world is slowly about to overcome the global economic crisis, is corrected these days. Greece, a country that is part of the European currency union, is now staggering. There is talk of a debt that is going through the roof, nervous debtors and the threat of a national bankruptcy. Greece is a ticking time bomb. That this now poses a danger to the whole of Europe has to do with the economic crisis. But this is not the only reason, because the Greek have never taken debt seriously. By giving wrong figures, they sneaked into the Euro zone. For the euro zone, a number of national bankruptcies would be a great threat. This would not just be about a few billion euros. This would be about whether the currency union can deal with such problems and whether the euro will survive. Under the headline QSanctions if necessary,Q Tagesspiegel editorialized: QIf necessary, sanctions must force the government in Athens to finally change its course. The Greek finance ministerQs statement that they will not wait for somebody to rescue the country but take action themselves is an encouraging signal. Far-reaching measures to save money must follow swiftly. If the debt accelerates further, this would threaten the euro. MURPHY